Radio Hour: Alice

Every once in a while all the pieces seem to fall magically into place. Yesterday, Ryan and I went to see Plan B Theater Company's production of Radio Hour: Alice. The show's run is sold out but you don't despair. The show was also being broadcast live to listeners of KUER's RadioWest. Here's a link to the podcast if you are interested in checking it out.

Ryan wanted to go because Bill Allred from X96 Radio from Hell show is narrating the play. I wanted to see it because my friend Daisy is the foley artist (that's the person who does sound effects in case you didn't know...I didn't know, I had to look it up). Best of all, my teammate England's Glory (and Daisy's sis) happened to be there with her son! The show was outstanding, Ryan and I were completely captivated.

After the show, we hung around to hello to Daisy. We met Bill Allred who graciously agreed to me taking a picture of he and Ryan. Ryan was so excited and he was grinning from ear to ear afterward.

Daisy also invited us to come backstage to check out the foley table. We were fascinated to see all the common household items used to make sound effects. Ryan and I really liked the cigar box guitar with the pool cue neck.


After the backstage tour we all headed over to the Beehive Tea Room. Have you been there? If not, you should go. It is so charming instead and they a wonderful selection of tea, plus sandwiches, salads, quiche, and assorted sweet treats.

Daisy and her sweetie, Jay. Aren't they adorable? Jay was also in Radio Hour:Alice. He voiced the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter. Jay kept Ryan and I entertained with stories about Murphy the ferret. I had no idea that ferrets made such great (albeit mischievous) pets!

In Case Thursday Evening is Still too Far Away

Here's a little something to get you through the workday afternoon slump. Oh, Kelly, why did you ever stop blogging? I still check 'Things I've Bought That I Love' every once in a while to see if you've starting updating it again.

Voila!

Well, I came through the process of revamping my blog site relatively unscathed. There are still a few little buggy things I'm working on but I was able to accomplish most of my redesign goals.

When I started my blog, I selected the black background because I liked the way pictures looked against it, but I didn't realize how difficult it is to read white text against the black background. So, my first goal in the redesign was to lighten things up. I also wanted a cleaner, sleeker look.

Additionally, I like websites and blogs that make it easy for me to share content with my friends on Facebook, Twitter or via email. I also like it when I can bookmark the site on Evernote or Delicious for later reference so it was important to me to have that functionality on my page too.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the redesign. I heard from one friend the other day via email that she had trouble leaving comments on my site. It made me wonder if others were having the same issue. Overall, I'm glad I went through the process because it was a great learning experience for me. I'm happy with the results and hope that you'll find your reading experience more pleasurable too!

Feeling the Need to Revamp

Do you ever look in the mirror and feel underwhelmed? Do you feel as though your look is tired? That's the way I'm feeling about my blog these days. So, I've decided that I'm going to hunker down and spend the next few days sprucing things up around here. Hopefully within the next day or two (or three) Wise Ax will be sporting a whole new look. Stay tuned!

Cine-Dips

Earlier this year some of our friends started Cine-Dips which is a group of friends who meet monthly to watch a movie and share delicious dips. Ban and I have not been able to make it even once this year because of conflicts in our schedules.

But all that changed last night. We watched The Man Who Planted Trees, the 1987 Oscar winner for Best Animated Short. You can actually watch the 30 minute short in its entirety below. You can also check out my post (and links to recipes) on the Cine-Dips blog here. All told, the food, film, and company were excellent and we can't wait until the next installment of Cine-Dips.


The man who planted trees

Miguel | MySpace Video

Evernote

Do you use Evernote? If you don't, I am going to try to convince you to give it a try. Evernote is a free program that allows you to keep track of everything that needs keeping track of in your life. In Evernote you create notebooks and then you stuff those notebooks with whatever you want. Let me give you a few examples of how I use Evernote.

I use Evernote to keep track of holiday and birthday gift ideas for my friends and family. If I see a potential gift idea on a website, I'll use the handy web clipper to clip the site and put it in my Gifts notebook. If I'm out and about and see an item that would be a good gift idea for someone, I'll snap a picture of it and email it to my Evernote account.

A member of my family had some health issues recently and I used a notebook to keep track of everything related to those issues. I have .pdf files of research articles, medication schedules and doses, email correspondence with physicians, notes to remind myself to follow up on things that I need to take care of, etc. It's been very handy to have everything in one place. Plus, you can share notebooks with other people if they need access to the information too.

I have a notebook for recipes. I can use the 'tag' feature to give attributes to each recipe, such as, soup, appetizer, thai, vegetarian, etc. Then, I can search for the recipe either by the name of the recipe or using the tags.

I have a notebook for ideas on blog posts and stories that I want to write (writing about Evernote has been in that notebook for weeks now). I have a notebook for keeping track of books that I want to read, music I want to listen to and restaurants that I want to try.

I have a notebook that I use as a wine journal. I simply snap a picture of the bottle, email it into Evernote, and add some notes about what I liked about the wine or what food was paired it. I've just started doing the same thing for artisan cheeses.

Are you convinced? Do you think you'll give it a try? Check out their informational video when you have a minute. If you start using it, I'd love to hear your thoughts about the program and how you are using it. You should know that Evernote isn't paying me to say these things. I love this program, use it daily and thought that you might find it useful too!

One Lucky Day in Yellowstone

We spent Friday in Yellowstone National Park. Perhaps it was the recent Ken Burns' series on National Parks but I had this urge to spend some time exploring the park. Clear sunny skies prevailed over an unseasonably warm, autumn day. I was hoping to spot wildlife. This is where our lucky streak started running hot. Check out this guy on the side of the road. Nice rack, right?


Or how about this wolf? He crossed the road right in front of us and immediately pounced on a small creature, maybe a chipmunk or something. We got a close up glimpse of the circle of life I guess.


I was fascinated by the thermal pools. The water in many of them is crystal clear and you can see down into the deep abyss. Other pools were muddy, bubbling, sulfuric messes. The geysers were spectacular too.




One of the most spectacular places in the park is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I'd never been to this part of the park before and the scenery is stunning.


Part of the grand loop was closed due to road construction. This means that we had to double back through the park to get out. It takes a deceiving amount of time to see the sights in the park, partially because of the 45 mile per hour speed limit.

As we were making our way out of the park, I ended up getting stuck behind an elderly gentlemen driving an old Land Rover. I'm not sure if was the man's age or limitations of his vehicle but he was averaging 30-35 mph the whole way. The roads in parts of Yellowstone are narrow, curving passes (read: no passing lanes or clear views to pass for long stretches). I wanted to get back to the cabin in time for sunset so I was getting really frustrated that this guy was impeding my progress.

I finally had the opportunity to pass him and wanted to make up for lost time. Unfortunately, a park ranger passed me and clocked me going a wee bit over the speed limit. I saw him flip around and knew I'd been caught. I've never been pulled over for speeding before. I wondered if tickets cost more in national parks. The cop approached my car and I started apologizing profusely. Apparently, I'd been doing 58 in a 45. Doh!

I told him that I knew that I was speeding and explained that I'd been stuck behind the old guy for miles. He laughed and thanked me for my honesty. He took my license, registration, and proof of insurance back to his vehicle.

I don't know if he can tell that I've never had a speeding ticket or been pulled over before. Or maybe he'd been stuck behind the old guy earlier in the day. But, either way, he came back to my car, handed me my stuff and told me to slow down. Pretty lucky, don't you think?

Happy Hour Done Right

You take some tasty treats like these and walk down to the water's edge. Sip, snack, sigh...repeat.

Relaxation and rejuvenation are on the docket this weekend. We are holed up in my friend's cabin in Island Park, Idaho. I wish there was some way to share with you the way the air smells up here. It is so clean, crisp and pine-scented. Intoxicating! The stars are unbelievable too. There must be roughly a gazillion of them in the sky. I saw a shooting star last night. I made a wish and I hope it comes true.

Au Revoir, Gourmet

Like foodies everywhere, I was stunned to hear the news earlier this week that Gourmet magazine would cease publication with the November issue. Print media has taken a beating for certain in these economic times but to see a powerhouse like Gourmet go down was a surprise.

Chris Kimball of Cooks Illustrated (a magazine that I subscribe to) wrote this provocative Op-ed piece in the New York times. Fans of Cooks Illustrated or America's Test Kitchen know of Chris Kimball's somewhat smug demeanor and in the Op-ed he can't resist taking a swipe at Conde Naste (who owns Gourmet) for selling off another cooking magazine that he owned in the 70s. But, he also brings up some food for thought (sorry, I couldn't resist). Cooks Illustrated accepts no advertising and is fully funded through reader subscriptions. Their associated website also limits free content. Only paid subscribers have access to all recipes and web content.

Is Gourmet's demise evidence of a societal trend moving from valuing expertise, education and good writing, in favor of a more open approach where everyone has the ability to upload content to the blogs, restaurant and recipes reviews regardless of adeptness?

One blogger responded to a comment I made on Twitter today with a link to his blog post on the subject. You can see his response here. He interpreted the Chris Kimball Op-ed somewhat differently than I did. I wasn't outraged by Chris Kimball, in fact, I think he raised some interesting and valid points. Chris Kimball's article is obviously focused only one field, food writing. The same transformation can be seen in politics, reviews of products, customer service reviews, etc.

In a digital age, should information be free? Has our wiki'd society devalued expertise or has this new egalitarian turn raised our collective knowledge?

Beauty

No wonder they look so flawless. It is good to keep things in perspective.

Bring On Da Funk!

Do you like to roller skate? Come to the Gallivan Center this Thursday night! I'll be there and you should be there too. Bust out your unitards and leg warmers and let's show Salt Lake how roller skating is BACK! Check out this link for more information.

Twins!

Ban and I are super excited to announce that we have two new additions to the family. Roombas! Our first one died about a year ago and after valiant efforts to revive her, Ban finally had to admit defeat and let her go.

We waited a while because the hurt was still too raw but sometimes an opportunity just presents itself and you know that the timing is right. I'm thrilled to introduce you to the newest members of the household. Check back often to see the shenanigans that these two get into!

SCDG Commercial

My fellow teammate, Nico Noir, is a film-maker in real life and she's creating a commercial for the Salt City Derby Girls. She's been filming all over the valley this week with a few more shoots scheduled for this weekend and next week. Yesterday, I took part in a shoot in downtown Salt Lake City at the Gallivan Trax station.

I had a blast! We were getting crazy looks from passersby and a few even stopped to take pictures. At one point in the shoot, local weatherman, Sterling Poulsen, and a camera man came outside to film a tease for last night's weather spot. We convinced him to let us skate past him while he said something like, 'See what's rolling in for the weekend weather'. I didn't actually see if it aired but it was pretty fun nonetheless.

I'll keep you posted on when the commercial is completed and where it's going to air!